IRAQ IIO

Cogent overview and recap.

Summary here.

Reading the entrails.

Related:

Washington’s realization that Iraq can no longer be won or even stabilized unless the regional framework changes, has come late — perhaps too late. The United States will have to find agreement with its allies and enter into direct talks with all the other players to try to achieve a new regional consensus.

If this policy shift had taken place a year ago or even early last summer, the prospects would have been better. And with every passing day, America’s position in the region is weakening further and the chances of a successful new political strategy become more remote. Article

Shorter version: Nothing to see here. Move along.

President Bush and Rice repeatedly probed al-Maliki on his plans to deal with the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the aide said. The Iraqi prime minister was noncommittal.

“It is not a big problem and we will find a solution for it,” the official quoted al-Maliki as telling Bush. Article

WHAT HAVE WE BECOME

After nearly six years of the woebegone G. Walker administration, it has come to this – their own staff in the trenches imploring them to face facts.

Good luck.

In an unprecedented action, representatives for more than 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists are calling on Congress to take immediate action against global warming, according to a petition released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The petition also calls for an end to censorship of agency scientists and other specialists on topics of climate change and the effects of air pollution. Article

NOTED IN PASSING

Cloak and dagger conclave. Presumably, all the catered food was served under wraps.

En-chanted rings.

GRECIAN GEARS

Re-imagining a peak of ancient technology.

“This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind,” said study leader Mike Edmunds of Cardiff University in the UK. “The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right…In terms of historical and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa.” Article